Posts Tagged Amazon Instant Video

This week at 148Apps, a new video revolution began, as Amazon.com released its Amazon Instant Video app for the iPad. Carter Dotson writes, “Amazon Instant Video is now available on iPad, expanding out the Amazon’s vast library of video offerings to iOS users. This offers streaming of purchased movies and TV shows from Amazon, with the ability to sync up watch lists between devices. It also includes titles available from Amazon Prime, similar to Netflix, a service offering over 120,000 streaming movies and TV shows. It is only available as a yearly subscription from Amazon as part of the Prime service that also includes free 2-day shipping on Amazon items.”

Over at GiggleApps.com, writer Amy Solomon got us ready for mealtime wither her review of Bo’s Dinnertime. She writes, “Bo’s Dinnertime in a cute and fun interactive universal app that teaches the sequencing of events that lead up to dinnertime, such as food shopping, putting away groceries, cooking and setting the table, as well as eating dinner and cleaning up afterwards. A simple and sweet song is also included, as is a section dedicated to selecting and eating foods with the tap of a finger. Narration is included, leading children though varied food related exercises, complete with subtle highlighting of new objects to tap or interact with, keeping the flow of this app going nicely.”

Last, but certainly not least, 148Apps.biz writer Carter Dotson explored the results of a recent study by KinderTown. He says, “KinderTown, developers of an app that helps collect the best kids apps on the App Store, have released a study based on searches within their app. Their “KinderSights” analytics study collected data from June 20th to July 10th, and they have released the results from the study, revealing some key insights into those that search for kids’ apps on the App Store.

The most-searched criterion was age, with 50.2% of searches looking for apps for a particular age. Second was price at 40.6%, followed by platform at 31.8%, and the type of app was last at 30.2%.”

This week may be done, but there’s no need to worry. More app reviews, news and contests are always on their way across the 148Apps network. Just follow us on Twitter or Like us on Facebook to stay on top of all the happenings. See you next week, Gothamites!

Amazon Instant Video is now available on iPad, expanding out the Amazon’s vast library of video offerings to iOS users. This offers streaming of purchased movies and TV shows from Amazon, with the ability to sync up watch lists between devices. It also includes titles available from Amazon Prime, similar to Netflix, a service offering over 120,000 streaming movies and TV shows. It is only available as a yearly subscription from Amazon as part of the Prime service that also includes free 2-day shipping on Amazon items.

The app does not support AirPlay, so those looking to use it on their TV will have to find an alternate device to stream through, like a game console. It should be noted that Netflix doesn’t support AirPlay, either, but it’s available on the Apple TV directly. And? On pretty much every other device that can connect to the internet. Seriously, I have 10 devices that could watch Netflix, not counting computers.

iPhone and iPod touch users are currently shut out of using Amazon’s service entirely. Similar to the Kindle app, buying and discovering new videos to watch is not included, as it must all be done through the browser in order to comply with Apple policies.

It’s been a great week for those who use video streaming services on their iPads. Yesterday Hulu Plus added Apple TV support to its app and today Amazon Prime members finally have iPad access to Amazon Instant Video. The service, and app by corollary, is part Netflix, part iTunes allowing you to stream a library of 120,000 movies and TV shows including very current ones for $79 or order titles a la carte.

There are some other cool features as well. You can create a Watchlist, or queue if you prefer, that is available on any platform. It shows rented media and your personal collection. Season Pass holders will be able to see their favortie shows within 24 hours of broadcast and those shows will be added to the Watchlist automatically. Videos can be streamed over Wi-Fi or downloaded for offline viewing.

The one hitch is that in order to circumvent Apple’s 30% take of all in-app purchases, Amazon does with Instant Video what it does with its Kindle app. That is, it forces users to the Amazon web site to order. The extra step is a nuisance, but for those who use a Kindle Fire, or are in other ways tied into Amazon’s digital media ecosystem, it’s not really that much work.

Oddly missing is AirPlay or Apple TV support for video (right now it’s audio only). There is no word yet from any Amazon spokesperson on future plans or to explain the omission. If you use to the service and try it out on your iPad, please let us know what you think in the comments.

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